Charles Mckinney

The Digital Panopticon: How Tech Keeps Ex-Cons Locked Down—And How to Fight Back

Let’s get real. Getting out of prison used to mean a second chance. Now, it’s like you never left—because the system just got smarter and meaner. These days, it’s not just guards and parole officers watching you. It’s robots, apps, and algorithms. The digital world is the new prison yard, and most folks don’t even see the walls. Every phone call you make inside gets scanned by AI. They say it’s for “safety,” but the bots don’t know context. Say the wrong word—like “mara,” which just means “friends” in Spanish—and suddenly you’re flagged as a gang member. They track your phone. They track your social media. They track your face. Mugshots? There’s millions online, and they never go away. That’s a digital scarlet letter you can’t scrub off.